Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 13 - The Heavenly Treasure in the Earthen Vessel - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The heavenly treasure in the earth and vessel. In the
- 0:05Speaker 1: fourth chapter of Second Corinthians and the seventh verse, we
- 0:08Speaker 1: have these words, but we have this treasure in earth
- 0:12Speaker 1: and vessels, that the excellency of the power may be
- 0:16Speaker 1: of God and not of us. Before I begin to
- 0:20Speaker 1: speak on the subject direct, let me make two remarks.
- 0:24Speaker 1: The one is that in my first address and later on,
- 0:28Speaker 1: I more than once try to impress the thought that
- 0:31Speaker 1: we may be making a great mistake when we seek
- 0:33Speaker 1: for the baptism of the Spirit for power, for work
- 0:36Speaker 1: and service. Not that we are wrong in seeking that,
- 0:41Speaker 1: but we are often thinking too exclusively of the power,
- 0:44Speaker 1: not realizing that the Holy Spirit waits to come as
- 0:48Speaker 1: a life, renewing our whole being into the likeness of Christ.
- 0:53Speaker 1: You know how I have more than once tried to
- 0:56Speaker 1: press this side of the truth. Get the Holy Spirit,
- 0:59Speaker 1: in all his power, into your life to make you
- 1:02Speaker 1: spiritually minded, to fill you with love and humility, and
- 1:05Speaker 1: you will be fitted for work. But I would be
- 1:09Speaker 1: very sorry if any one should think that I count
- 1:11Speaker 1: work of little value. All that God wants to do
- 1:15Speaker 1: for you has this object that you may bring forth
- 1:18Speaker 1: much fruit. Therefore, beware of misunderstanding me and thinking that
- 1:23Speaker 1: I would have you seek only for the higher life.
- 1:26Speaker 1: That might be a selfish thing. And therefore I want
- 1:29Speaker 1: to speak this morning about work, the work every one
- 1:32Speaker 1: of us has to do. The other remark is a
- 1:36Speaker 1: good while before I came away from South Africa, I
- 1:39Speaker 1: read in an old author a sentence that impressed me deeply,
- 1:43Speaker 1: and I wrote it down in one of my note books.
- 1:46Speaker 1: It was this, The first duty of every clergyman is
- 1:50Speaker 1: to beg of God very humbly, that all that he
- 1:54Speaker 1: wants to be done in his hearers may first be
- 1:56Speaker 1: fully and truly done in himself. I cannot say what
- 2:01Speaker 1: power there appears to be in this sentence, Brother minister,
- 2:05Speaker 1: and brother worker. The first duty of one who works
- 2:08Speaker 1: for Christ and who speaks for Him is to humbly
- 2:12Speaker 1: come to God and ask that everything he wants done
- 2:15Speaker 1: in his hearers may first be thoroughly and fully done
- 2:18Speaker 1: in himself. That brings us to the root of all
- 2:22Speaker 1: true work. When I speak about the love of God
- 2:26Speaker 1: and the power of redemption, of the salvation from sin,
- 2:30Speaker 1: or the filling of the Holy Spirit, or the love
- 2:33Speaker 1: of God shed abroad in the heart, you and I
- 2:36Speaker 1: need to have God do the thing in ourselves. And
- 2:39Speaker 1: the more earnestly we seek that the more there will
- 2:42Speaker 1: be a hidden power of the Holy Spirit to pass
- 2:45Speaker 1: through from us in whom God has done what he
- 2:48Speaker 1: sends us to preach. That thought, I think you will see,
- 2:53Speaker 1: has close connection with the subject we have this morning.
- 2:57Speaker 1: Paul writes about his ministry in the first five verses,
- 3:01Speaker 1: and then he says, when he had spoken the wonderful words,
- 3:05Speaker 1: God hath shined into our hearts to give us and
- 3:08Speaker 1: through us, to give others the light of the knowledge
- 3:11Speaker 1: of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- 3:15Speaker 1: But then he thinks how the Corinthians may despise him,
- 3:18Speaker 1: and how the world looked down upon him in all
- 3:21Speaker 1: his troubles and humiliation. And he adds, but we have
- 3:24Speaker 1: this treasure in earth and vessels, that the excellency of
- 3:28Speaker 1: the power may be of God and not of us.
- 3:32Speaker 1: I want to say to all of you, beloved workers,
- 3:35Speaker 1: who long to know what the right spirit is in
- 3:37Speaker 1: which to work, that this word is one of the
- 3:40Speaker 1: key words of God about work. It will show you
- 3:44Speaker 1: four wondrous things. One the greatness of the heavenly treasure. Two,
- 3:51Speaker 1: the feebleness of the earthly vessel. Three, the abiding difference
- 3:55Speaker 1: between the two and four the living union in which
- 3:59Speaker 1: they are found. First of all, the heavenly treasure. What
- 4:04Speaker 1: is that? You know what he has stated in the
- 4:07Speaker 1: words I have just quoted. God hath shined into our hearts.
- 4:12Speaker 1: Think of the sun that makes us have all the sunshine,
- 4:16Speaker 1: The sunshine into our eyes, into our bodies, into our
- 4:20Speaker 1: very spirit, and gives warmth and heat and light of life.
- 4:24Speaker 1: So Paul says, God, the Everlasting One, has shined and
- 4:29Speaker 1: is shining all along into our hearts to give what
- 4:33Speaker 1: shining gives light, and God shining gives the light of
- 4:37Speaker 1: the glory of God. Yes, the light of the knowledge
- 4:41Speaker 1: of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Does that not bring us back to what I have
- 4:46Speaker 1: said more than once. Christ wants to bring us to God.
- 4:50Speaker 1: And in the face of Christ, our one great study,
- 4:53Speaker 1: our one great object and desire should be that the
- 4:57Speaker 1: glory of God may be revealed in us, that we,
- 5:00Speaker 1: like the angels in Heaven, walk before Him with bowed faces,
- 5:04Speaker 1: worshiping and adoring all the day long. God shines into
- 5:08Speaker 1: our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, and by the Holy
- 5:12Speaker 1: Spirit he reveals the light of the knowledge of the
- 5:14Speaker 1: glory of God. It is not an intellectual knowledge. But
- 5:19Speaker 1: in the heart a man may have beautiful thoughts. He
- 5:22Speaker 1: may be a splendid preacher, he may be a most
- 5:25Speaker 1: edifying instructor. Yet there may be very much more of
- 5:29Speaker 1: intellect in him than of God's spirit. It must be
- 5:33Speaker 1: a religion of the heart. God is love. The love
- 5:37Speaker 1: of God is the love of the heart. God seeks
- 5:41Speaker 1: the heart, and God shines into the heart. And in
- 5:44Speaker 1: the heart the seed of love dwells, and the love
- 5:47Speaker 1: of God reveals his glory, the light of the knowledge,
- 5:50Speaker 1: of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now,
- 5:56Speaker 1: what is the heavenly treasure I am to have and
- 5:58Speaker 1: I am to carry. I may use different words. I
- 6:02Speaker 1: can call it the light of God. I can call
- 6:05Speaker 1: it the knowledge of God. I can call it the
- 6:08Speaker 1: glory of God. I can call it the love of
- 6:11Speaker 1: God in Jesus Christ, dear friends, the treasure you have
- 6:16Speaker 1: to carry as a worker for God is a heavenly treasure.
- 6:20Speaker 1: The more you realize its greatness, the more you will
- 6:23Speaker 1: be able to do your work. If I am a
- 6:26Speaker 1: poor man, and a beggar asks me for something, I
- 6:29Speaker 1: may give him according to what I have. I may
- 6:31Speaker 1: give him the last dollar. But if I am rich,
- 6:35Speaker 1: I could give him thousands. If need be, I can
- 6:38Speaker 1: give liberally. Believer, if you get the consciousness I am
- 6:42Speaker 1: a rich man, I am a millionaire. I have heavenly treasures.
- 6:47Speaker 1: I have the key of the treasures of my God. Oh,
- 6:51Speaker 1: what joy and confidence and power you will have to
- 6:53Speaker 1: make others believe there is a heavenly blessing to get. Oh,
- 6:57Speaker 1: we talk about the blessing, and we try to know
- 7:00Speaker 1: the different truth. But how different if our hearts were
- 7:04Speaker 1: burning with the heavenly life of God. If the life
- 7:08Speaker 1: of God burns in us in the deepest regions of
- 7:10Speaker 1: our being, what a life of blessing. Just think of
- 7:14Speaker 1: a life with the light of the face of the
- 7:16Speaker 1: Glory of God shining into us all the day. What
- 7:20Speaker 1: a heavenly treasure to carry about with us. That light
- 7:24Speaker 1: would shine through us and would be reflected from us.
- 7:27Speaker 1: I pray you get the light of the Glory of
- 7:30Speaker 1: God into your souls, O workers. The heavenly treasure is
- 7:35Speaker 1: not human knowledge, It is not thought. It is not
- 7:38Speaker 1: a little experience, but it is the very sunshine of
- 7:41Speaker 1: God's glory in the soul. God would have you take
- 7:45Speaker 1: the heavenly treasure. And if you will get your souls
- 7:48Speaker 1: full of the consciousness, I am carrying about the heavenly
- 7:51Speaker 1: treasure in me. I am an earth and vessel. But
- 7:54Speaker 1: I have the heavenly treasure. You would go forth in
- 7:58Speaker 1: new confidence and power. Oh, study it not only in books,
- 8:03Speaker 1: nor even in the Bible. I do not depreciate books,
- 8:07Speaker 1: and ten thousand times no, I do not depreciate the Bible.
- 8:11Speaker 1: But the Bible cannot give it you. The Bible is
- 8:14Speaker 1: only a pointer to show you up to God, that
- 8:17Speaker 1: you may be able to come into God's presence. It
- 8:21Speaker 1: is found only in God's presence. Say o, God, shine
- 8:26Speaker 1: into my heart. Remember that the shining of God must
- 8:30Speaker 1: come ever fresh upon you. I have said, and I
- 8:33Speaker 1: will repeat it. I do not weary in repeating it,
- 8:36Speaker 1: because it is such a lesson. I cannot live on
- 8:39Speaker 1: the sunlight of yesterday. I cannot live on the sunlight
- 8:43Speaker 1: of an hour ago. I must have the sunlight fresh
- 8:47Speaker 1: every moment. And just so, this shining of God into
- 8:51Speaker 1: our hearts must be the living unceasing divine shining of
- 8:55Speaker 1: God himself. Therefore, if the believer wants to be a
- 8:59Speaker 1: worker for God once to carry the treasure in ever
- 9:02Speaker 1: fresh power, his one desire must be to abide every
- 9:06Speaker 1: moment in the full light of God's love and God's presence.
- 9:11Speaker 1: Young man and young woman, students of this Bible Institute,
- 9:15Speaker 1: I pray you remember a man has as much real
- 9:18Speaker 1: power for eternity as he has of God shining into
- 9:22Speaker 1: his heart. And while I pray you to be faithful
- 9:25Speaker 1: in your study and use your time well, and while
- 9:28Speaker 1: I would urge you to use every opportunity for getting
- 9:31Speaker 1: acquainted with that precious word, yet I say first and last,
- 9:36Speaker 1: everything depends upon a man living in the light of
- 9:39Speaker 1: God's presence, in the light of God's love, and waiting
- 9:42Speaker 1: until he has the heavenly treasure in his heart, God
- 9:45Speaker 1: shining there the light of the knowledge of the glory
- 9:48Speaker 1: of God in the face of Jesus Christ. May every
- 9:53Speaker 1: act of faith in Christ lead you up to God
- 9:55Speaker 1: and stir you to wait upon the everlasting God to
- 9:58Speaker 1: reveal himself. More, Let there be a holy hunger and
- 10:03Speaker 1: thirst of the heart after God, and after a life
- 10:06Speaker 1: like that of Christ's living every hour in fellowship with
- 10:10Speaker 1: the Father and in dependence upon Him. Oh, what a
- 10:14Speaker 1: blessed work. The work of the ministry, What a blessed work.
- 10:18Speaker 1: Proclaiming the salvation of Jesus Christ. The humblest teacher or
- 10:22Speaker 1: Bible reader can go to others carrying not only the Bible,
- 10:26Speaker 1: but the very light of God shining into him and
- 10:29Speaker 1: out of him. A lamp is not made to light,
- 10:33Speaker 1: but to carry the light. And I carry the light
- 10:36Speaker 1: of the knowledge of the glory of God in my heart.
- 10:39Speaker 1: Carry Jesus Christ himself, carry the glory of God. Dear brother,
- 10:45Speaker 1: the most precious thing you have in your heart, and
- 10:48Speaker 1: the most blessed thing you can desire, is to have
- 10:51Speaker 1: God fill that heart a heavenly treasure in an earth
- 10:54Speaker 1: and vessel. Second, why is it that so many believers,
- 11:00Speaker 1: and so many workers, and so many ministers enjoy so
- 11:04Speaker 1: little of this glory of the heavenly treasure. The answer
- 11:07Speaker 1: is simply because they are all looking at the earthly
- 11:10Speaker 1: treasure in a wrong way. Many ministers and Christians are
- 11:15Speaker 1: always saying, I am so weak, I am so feeble,
- 11:18Speaker 1: and my thoughts are so poor, and my experience is
- 11:22Speaker 1: so wretched, and they do not understand why God puts
- 11:25Speaker 1: the treasure in the earth and vessel. They have not
- 11:28Speaker 1: accepted their position as an earth and vessel. The more
- 11:32Speaker 1: conscious I am of the utter valuelessness of the earth
- 11:36Speaker 1: and vessel, the more I can rejoice in the glory
- 11:39Speaker 1: of the treasure. Here on Earth. People generally seek to
- 11:43Speaker 1: have some proportion between the treasure and the vessel in
- 11:45Speaker 1: which it is kept. Take the richest people in Chicago
- 11:49Speaker 1: whose wives have received from husbands the most beautiful diamonds
- 11:53Speaker 1: and jewelry. We will find them all in beautiful caskets,
- 11:57Speaker 1: elegantly polished and made most expensive, some inlaid with gold,
- 12:02Speaker 1: some all of gold. We always expect some proportion between
- 12:07Speaker 1: the treasure and the vessel, and people think, according to
- 12:10Speaker 1: the beauty of the vessel, will be the beauty of
- 12:12Speaker 1: the treasure. God does the very opposite. And that is
- 12:16Speaker 1: why Paul says in our text how he was persecuted
- 12:19Speaker 1: and had to suffer. It was all well. He knew
- 12:23Speaker 1: he was an earth and vessel with a heavenly treasure.
- 12:27Speaker 1: The more he felt the insignificance of the earth and vessel,
- 12:30Speaker 1: the more he rejoiced in the heavenly treasure. When at
- 12:34Speaker 1: Johannesburg I was shown over a gold mine. Coming out
- 12:38Speaker 1: from the door of the furnace room, we met a
- 12:41Speaker 1: man carrying something in a plain iron vessel. When asked
- 12:44Speaker 1: by the manager to lift the cover, we saw gold
- 12:48Speaker 1: to the value of a thousand dollars being brought into
- 12:51Speaker 1: the furnace. He had that lump of gold in a
- 12:54Speaker 1: common iron vessel that you could get for half a dollar.
- 12:57Speaker 1: There was a very precious treasure in a very common vessel.
- 13:02Speaker 1: God wants us to realize that his plan and his
- 13:06Speaker 1: delight is to put the heavenly treasure into an earth
- 13:09Speaker 1: and vessel. Let us be content with that. Every one
- 13:14Speaker 1: of us has often experienced that, and it has cast
- 13:17Speaker 1: us down. You want to preach, but feel unable to
- 13:21Speaker 1: do as you would wish. You have not the warmth
- 13:23Speaker 1: and fullness you would like to have. You are cast
- 13:27Speaker 1: down because you look in the earth and vessel. Your
- 13:30Speaker 1: whole thought should be let the heavenly treasure be magnified.
- 13:34Speaker 1: If you are full of that, God will help you
- 13:36Speaker 1: to praise Him and your whole heart will be ever
- 13:39Speaker 1: set on one thing, the heavenly treasure. God will honor it,
- 13:44Speaker 1: and all the time and strength that you have will
- 13:46Speaker 1: be saved for the one blessed work of praising God
- 13:49Speaker 1: and trusting Him and waiting upon Him. We have a
- 13:53Speaker 1: heavenly treasure in an earth and vessel. Beloved workers, if
- 13:58Speaker 1: I could rouse your hearts by the Holy Spirit to
- 14:00Speaker 1: consider your position, listen while I tell you God in
- 14:05Speaker 1: heaven has a treasure Its worth passes all thought, and
- 14:09Speaker 1: that treasure is His beloved son. In him. It hath
- 14:13Speaker 1: pleased the Father that all the fullness should dwell in him,
- 14:18Speaker 1: are hidden all the riches of the wisdom and of
- 14:21Speaker 1: the knowledge of God. Christ is God's treasure and God's delight,
- 14:26Speaker 1: and the storehouse of all God's riches. God had that
- 14:30Speaker 1: treasure in heaven, but sent it down to earth, and
- 14:34Speaker 1: in the Babe of Bethlehem, in that Jesus, who had
- 14:38Speaker 1: not a place to lay his head. In that Jesus
- 14:41Speaker 1: as an earthen vessel, there was that heavenly treasure of God.
- 14:46Speaker 1: The Jesus that went down into the grave in that
- 14:48Speaker 1: broken earth and vessel was the treasure of God. He
- 14:52Speaker 1: lifted him up to the glory. And then the Holy
- 14:55Speaker 1: Spirit came down to bring that heavenly treasure into the
- 14:58Speaker 1: hearts of men. And the treasure in heaven that God
- 15:03Speaker 1: delights in can be a treasure in your heart that
- 15:06Speaker 1: you can delight in. Do let every worker take time
- 15:10Speaker 1: to study this. May God show his people show me
- 15:15Speaker 1: the heavenly treasure that I carry about the treasure of
- 15:18Speaker 1: God's heart is the treasure of my heart. The glory
- 15:22Speaker 1: of God shines in the face of his beloved son.
- 15:25Speaker 1: And though you are an earth and vessel, your joy,
- 15:28Speaker 1: your confidence, and your power may be unfailing. In the
- 15:32Speaker 1: earth and vessel, we have the heavenly treasure. Thirdly, there
- 15:38Speaker 1: is another point I mentioned. We want to speak about
- 15:42Speaker 1: the abiding difference between the two. Some people would think, yes,
- 15:46Speaker 1: at the beginning of the Christian life, a man will
- 15:49Speaker 1: feel that very clearly it is a very earth and
- 15:52Speaker 1: vessel with a heavenly treasure in it. But when a
- 15:55Speaker 1: man has been living a spiritual life, living in fellowship
- 15:58Speaker 1: with God for years, should he still feel he is
- 16:01Speaker 1: just an earthen vessel. When a man has become humble
- 16:05Speaker 1: and christ like, will he then still be an earthen vessel? Yes, Beloved,
- 16:11Speaker 1: poor had been for years in the rich experience of
- 16:14Speaker 1: God's grace. And yet he speaks of himself as an
- 16:17Speaker 1: earth and vessel, and he would remain one until the end.
- 16:21Speaker 1: And why the reason is given in our text that
- 16:26Speaker 1: the excellency of the power may be of God. We
- 16:30Speaker 1: are by nature so full of pride and self. In
- 16:33Speaker 1: the most spiritual believer, there is always danger of self exaltation.
- 16:38Speaker 1: Remember in Second Corinthians twelve, Poor writes, lest I should
- 16:42Speaker 1: be exalted by the revelations I had received. God sent
- 16:46Speaker 1: a thorn in the flesh to humble me. And you
- 16:50Speaker 1: know how Christ taught him that when he was weak,
- 16:52Speaker 1: he would be strongest, because Christ's power would rest upon
- 16:56Speaker 1: his weakness. And even so God comes to us. We
- 17:01Speaker 1: are ever in danger of beginning to think that we
- 17:03Speaker 1: are something, that God is putting this heavenly treasure ever
- 17:07Speaker 1: more abundantly in us, or when we begin to think
- 17:11Speaker 1: that God uses us to dispense to others again the
- 17:14Speaker 1: heavenly treasure and makes us a blessing to others. There
- 17:17Speaker 1: is a danger of our forgetting what we are. And
- 17:21Speaker 1: so God says it shall be forever a heavenly treasure
- 17:24Speaker 1: in a mere earthen vessel. I have pressed you to
- 17:28Speaker 1: remember and study what the treasure is, for it is
- 17:32Speaker 1: very heavenly. I now press you to study the other side.
- 17:36Speaker 1: No matter how many you have brought to Christ, the
- 17:39Speaker 1: vessel is still earthen. You are nothing. Oh, if you
- 17:44Speaker 1: once begin to understand it, you will not only be
- 17:47Speaker 1: content to accept the position, but rejoice in it. In
- 17:51Speaker 1: regard to this, there may be three states of mind.
- 17:54Speaker 1: The one is when a man does not want to
- 17:56Speaker 1: be an earthen vessel. He longs to be something better,
- 18:00Speaker 1: to beautify the vessel by culture and study. He does
- 18:03Speaker 1: not want to be an earth and vessel, and he
- 18:05Speaker 1: is unwearied in the effort to improve the earth and vessel.
- 18:10Speaker 1: It is a step in advance. When a man begins
- 18:12Speaker 1: to consent to be an earth and vessel, he begins
- 18:15Speaker 1: to feel that he cannot be otherwise and tries to
- 18:18Speaker 1: submit to it. He bears it as a humiliation, but
- 18:22Speaker 1: does not rejoice in it. Third step, he begins to
- 18:27Speaker 1: delight in being an earth and vessel. He sees why
- 18:30Speaker 1: it should be so, and approves of it. He counts
- 18:33Speaker 1: it his highest blessedness. Paul did not get to the
- 18:38Speaker 1: position we referred to in twelfth chapter of Second Corinthians.
- 18:41Speaker 1: At once, when the Lord sent that Messenger of Satan
- 18:45Speaker 1: to buffet him, he said three times, Lord, do take
- 18:48Speaker 1: it away. The Lord came to Paul and said, you
- 18:52Speaker 1: do not know that the Messenger of Satan is your
- 18:55Speaker 1: greatest blessing. Why Lord, because he will teach you to
- 18:59Speaker 1: be absent slutely dependent upon me. Every moment Paul got
- 19:04Speaker 1: a sight of it, he says, I will glory, will
- 19:07Speaker 1: rejoice in my infirmities, in the weakness of the earth
- 19:10Speaker 1: and vessel. That is a higher attainment, not only to endure,
- 19:15Speaker 1: but to rejoice in being an earth and vessel. Remember,
- 19:20Speaker 1: no matter how full God may fill your heart with
- 19:22Speaker 1: his salvation, the consciousness will always have to grow deeper.
- 19:26Speaker 1: I am an earth and vessel. That is why Paul
- 19:30Speaker 1: says in the same chapter in nothing am I behind
- 19:33Speaker 1: the chiefest of the apostles. Though I am nothing. God
- 19:37Speaker 1: made the creature originally to be a vessel in which
- 19:40Speaker 1: to show forth His divine glory. This is your highest honor,
- 19:45Speaker 1: to be a vessel, to carry the power and light
- 19:47Speaker 1: of God. That is what angels were created for, to
- 19:51Speaker 1: be vessels in which the glory of God could be shown. Forth.
- 19:55Speaker 1: That is what the child of God should be content
- 19:58Speaker 1: to be, a vessel, empty, low and broken, if need
- 20:02Speaker 1: be to be filled with Christ the treasure of God.
- 20:07Speaker 1: My last thought, the abiding union between the two, the
- 20:12Speaker 1: living union. I said, there is an abiding difference to
- 20:15Speaker 1: the end. But remember also there is a living union.
- 20:21Speaker 1: There was no living union between that mass of gold
- 20:24Speaker 1: away in Johannesburg I spoke of, and that iron dish.
- 20:27Speaker 1: The two were separate. But the treasure of God enters
- 20:31Speaker 1: into a man. Though I remain an earthen vessel. The
- 20:34Speaker 1: heavenly treasure becomes mine in such a way that it
- 20:37Speaker 1: enters my life and becomes myself. All the life of God,
- 20:42Speaker 1: and the Holy Spirit of God, and the holy Love
- 20:45Speaker 1: of God, and the Holy Son of God, and the
- 20:49Speaker 1: holy Glory of God. They all all passed down into
- 20:54Speaker 1: my very being in such an infinite divine reality that
- 20:58Speaker 1: they are my very own, and they make up myself.
- 21:03Speaker 1: God teaches me a double lesson, first of all, to
- 21:07Speaker 1: understand the everlasting difference, that I, as a creature ever
- 21:11Speaker 1: am nothing but a vessel. If I begin to know
- 21:14Speaker 1: the glory of God, I don't want to be anything else.
- 21:18Speaker 1: I become jealous of the honor and glory of God.
- 21:21Speaker 1: And my highest desire is to get lower and deeper
- 21:24Speaker 1: down that God may be all. But with this abiding
- 21:28Speaker 1: difference there comes what appears a contradiction, And yet it
- 21:31Speaker 1: is a blessed reality. I know that the treasure is
- 21:35Speaker 1: not in me, and that all my being is only
- 21:37Speaker 1: emptiness that holds it. Yet this living treasure becomes my
- 21:42Speaker 1: very self. This living treasure fills me and becomes inseparably
- 21:47Speaker 1: one with me. For my life and for my work.
- 21:50Speaker 1: The heavenly treasure is in the earth and vessel. What
- 21:54Speaker 1: is the object? The object is this, that the excellency
- 21:58Speaker 1: of the power may be of God. Yes, that is
- 22:02Speaker 1: why God has put the heavenly treasure in the earth
- 22:04Speaker 1: and vessel, that his beloved servants may learn to be
- 22:07Speaker 1: filled with the thought that the power is of God alone.
- 22:12Speaker 1: Let my one aim be to be nothing. No being
- 22:16Speaker 1: can tell how God will give the heavenly treasure into
- 22:19Speaker 1: the heart that is thoroughly empty. Dear friends, we sum
- 22:24Speaker 1: it all up in two thoughts. The one beloved child
- 22:28Speaker 1: of God, be very humble and get very low down.
- 22:31Speaker 1: The other, beloved child of God, be very trustful and
- 22:35Speaker 1: get very high up. I have said it more than once.
- 22:39Speaker 1: Be very humble. Young men and women who are studying,
- 22:43Speaker 1: I pray you by the mercies of God. Whatever you study,
- 22:47Speaker 1: do not forget to study humility. Someone has said, pray
- 22:52Speaker 1: to be delivered from every vestige of pride, as spirits
- 22:55Speaker 1: in torment would pray if they had any hope of
- 22:58Speaker 1: being delivered. Pray to be delivered from every secret root
- 23:02Speaker 1: of anything like pride. Pray to be brought down to
- 23:05Speaker 1: the dust before your God. Take time to get low
- 23:09Speaker 1: before God. God giveth grace to the humble. If you
- 23:14Speaker 1: want to get the heavenly treasure, get low. A vessel
- 23:18Speaker 1: must be empty, clean and lowly. Let us all be
- 23:22Speaker 1: willing to say, Lord, deepen in my soul the conviction
- 23:26Speaker 1: of my utter nothingness, and let me walk in holy
- 23:29Speaker 1: fear and trembling. And let it be one desire of
- 23:32Speaker 1: my heart to get low enough before God that God
- 23:35Speaker 1: may fill me. The other thought, be very trustful and
- 23:40Speaker 1: rise high in your expectation. I bring you this message
- 23:45Speaker 1: you want to be workers. I might have spoken about
- 23:48Speaker 1: the love we need for souls and the glory of
- 23:51Speaker 1: God in our work, and about prayer in work, but
- 23:54Speaker 1: Here is the chief thing, Christian Worker, be very trustful.
- 23:59Speaker 1: God has a treasure, his beloved son, God hath entrusted
- 24:03Speaker 1: you who are believers, with this treasure. It is in
- 24:07Speaker 1: your heart. You can hide it, you can hinder it,
- 24:10Speaker 1: or you can open your being very wide to be
- 24:13Speaker 1: filled with it. Oh, do believe in the glory of
- 24:16Speaker 1: that treasure, in the power of that treasure, in the
- 24:19Speaker 1: heavenly joy of that treasure, in its unutterable riches. It
- 24:24Speaker 1: is God shining into you his sunshine, his love, God
- 24:28Speaker 1: shining his spirit, God shining his love into your very heart.
- 24:33Speaker 1: Begin to open your heart very wide, and so every
- 24:36Speaker 1: moment of the day, let the treasure come in. Every
- 24:40Speaker 1: moment of the day. Let God shine into your heart
- 24:43Speaker 1: the glory of his son. And believe you will be
- 24:46Speaker 1: able to say, with Paul, we have this treasure. Let
- 24:50Speaker 1: us say to day, I have this treasure, this divine treasure,
- 24:54Speaker 1: and I am going to ask my God to reveal
- 24:56Speaker 1: it to me. I walk tremblingly at the thought I
- 25:00Speaker 1: carry the heavenly treasure. If you had a diamond of
- 25:04Speaker 1: twenty thousand dollars, how carefully you would keep it? Believers,
- 25:09Speaker 1: don't be so occupied with your work for Christ, and
- 25:12Speaker 1: study as to forget the chief thing I have, the
- 25:15Speaker 1: heavenly treasure. Let me walk carefully and watchfully, believing God
- 25:21Speaker 1: alone will keep shining all the time. May every heart
- 25:25Speaker 1: here know what it is. Every hour, every moment, God
- 25:29Speaker 1: shines into me the light of the knowledge of the
- 25:32Speaker 1: glory of God in the face of Christ. Moment by
- 25:36Speaker 1: moment I am kept in his love. Moment by moment,
- 25:40Speaker 1: i've life from above. God shines it and keeps it shining,
- 25:45Speaker 1: as he does the sunlight.